Yannick Pelletier Volatil

Volatile acidity is a clearly undesirable but unavoidable factor in wine. It is that portion of vinegar that comes out of the production process, and the less vinegar there is, the better the wine will be. So when Yannick Pelletier, a native vigneron from Languedoc, launched his Yannick Pelletier Volatil red wine, many asked him why he was naming his wine after something you want to avoid. His response was confident. “Volatile” in French is an adjective used to describe something that flies or can fly, like birds. And it is with this completely positive meaning that he presents a wine that is characterised by its lightness, purity and smoothness.

A former wine merchant in Lyon, Yannick Pelletier started his own project in 2004 after learning from Didier Barral, the leading natural vigneron in Languedoc. With 10 hectares of vineyards and a strong conviction of minimal intervention winemaking, he creates a range of honest, balanced and slightly wild wines that speak for themselves of the vast and yet not very well known wine region of Languedoc-Roussillon.This Yannick Pelletier Volatil is a red wine made with the Cinsault variety from a young 4 year old vineyard and another 50 year old vineyard with soils composed mainly of schist. All the work is done by hand, being as thorough as possible and using the utmost respect in every process as well as 100% organic treatments. In the winery, fermentation is carried out with whole clusters and native yeasts in stainless steel tanks. Finally, the wine is bottled without clarifying or filtering or adding sulphur.

Using a method of work that focusses on honesty, Pelletier presents Yannick Pelletier Volatil, a red wine labelled Vin de France that, as the name suggests, is as light, pure and wild as the flight of a bird that moves at ease in the most natural environment.